Mid-week ASX property wrap: 19 May

• The market dropped almost 2% wiping billions off the market
• Charter Hall embarked on $250M for four acquisitions
• GARDA spent $30M on three Brisbane acquisitions

This week in the mid-week wrap, companies raise the bar, and others exclaim ‘Ello Gov’na.

Monday saw HomeCo (ASX: HMC) make significant progress with its up and coming HealthCo fund, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (ASX: URW) announced a successful €1.25 billion bond placement, and Charter Hall Long WALE REIT announced multiple wins.

The broader market

Weeks of buoyant trading came to an end abruptly after last week’s budget, and the downward trend continued.

It was predicted yesterday that given the losses on Wall Street, the ASX would today follow suit. A number of other local factors also lead the market lower including resources and inflation worries.

This morning, the ASX opened at 7,066 plummeting 122 points about half an hour later.

Afternoon trading continued downwards, although without the same gravity. The overall damage was more than 2%, with Sydney Morning Herald estimating $41 billion had been wiped off the market.

The market closed with a small uptick at 6,931.70, overall a 1.9% drop, which was a 20-day low, according to the ASX.

At the close today, the top-performing real estate companies are:

Top-performing ASX listed real estate companies

Source: ASX

The movement

Monday opened to the news that HomeCo (ASX: HMC) was on track to raise $1 billion in equity to fund new medical and childcare portfolio HealthCo.

The announcement also came with acquisition news, HomeCo was to acquire Health Hub Morayfield (Queensland) for $110 million.

In addition, HomeCo has secured $23.2 million in two childcare acquisitions: one in Woolloongabba, Brisbane, Queensland, and the other in Five Dock, in the inner west of Sydney, NSW.

HomeCo also announced the sale of “$28.4 million non-core large format retail asset at 3.5% premium to book value.”

The only other notable Monday news was the Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW) update on its lease with the NSW Government. CLW signed 8,600 square metres of office accommodation at The Glasshouse, 45-61 Waterloo Road, Macquarie Park, Sydney.

Tuesday started with news that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (ASX: URW) had successfully made a €1.25 billion bond placement. The two-tranche senior bond offering was made up of a €650 million bond with a 7 year and 5 month maturity and a 0.75% fixed coupon, and a €600 million bond with a 12 year maturity and a 1.375% maturity.

Shortly afterwards, Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW) entered a trading halt before announcing the company would embark on a $250 million raising effort to partially fund the acquisition of four government-occupied properties. To fund the rest of the cost of $390 million, the company would use existing debt facilities.

Today, the market opened to news that within 24 hours, Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW) had successfully completed its first part of raising efforts. $169 million came through the coffers via the institutional entitlement offer, with the retail component opening next week.

News was rounded out by three GARDA Diversified Property Fund (ASX: GDF) acquisitions in Brisbane for $30 million total, trebling the company’s industrial development pipeline.

That’s all for the mid-week wrap where GARDA channelled the mantra that three is the magic number.